CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The former director of the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center accepted bribes and kickbacks from crooked electrical contractor Michael Forlani in exchange for favorable information that helped Forlani receive VA contracts, according to a 36-count indictment released today.

William Montague used his influence to steer companies to lease office space from Forlani, the indictment states. The indictment also accuses Montague of performing consulting work for a private company seeking business from the VA at the same time he was employed by the VA.

The 51-page indictment accuses Montague, 61, of accepting bribes and kickbacks, and of conspiring to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs in league with Forlani, the former owner of Doan Pyramid Electric.

The indictment documents 18 cases in which cash was e mailed from a business in Texas to Montague's house in Brecksville. The transactions totaled nearly $50,000.

Montague was arrested today and appeared this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

U.S. Magistrate Nancy Vecchiarelli released Montague on his own recognizance, and ordered him not to speak to any witnesses in the case or VA employees -- excluding his wife, who works at the VA.

The indictment comes about three weeks after FBI agents and the Depatment of Veterans Affairs criminal investigations division searched Montague's home in Brecksville.

Forlani, 55, was sentenced in April to eight years in federal prison for racketeering, bribery and other corruption-related charges. Forlani was the primary developer of the $125 million enlarged VA campus on Cleveland's East Side.

Montague joined the VA in 1975 and retired in 2010. He was the medical center's director during much of the planning for Forlani's project.

Forlani's business, Veterans Development LLC, was selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to develop and manage the hospital consolidation project.

The business venture was criticized last year by the U.S. Inspector General as being ill-conceived. The office said that instead of saving an estimated $29 million a year as forecast by Forlani and local VA administrators, the consolidation to Wade Park would cost the VA nearly half a billion dollars over the next 20 years.

``Violating the public trust for personal gain cannot be tolerated, particularly at the expense of our nation's heroes," said Gavin McClaren, agent in charge of the VA's criminal investigations division in Cleveland.

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